`
The Topic: As you finish up your first semester at the University (and in SGC), it is a time to reflect on the difference between what you expected this to be like and how this experience actually played out. In what ways was life as a college student different than you expected? Specifically address:
Also, please feel free to address how the semester worked in relation to your non-academic life: the difficulties, the benefits, the disappointments, and the unexpected highlights (if any!) of the situation you found yourself in this year.
[A FINAL NOTE: We do recognize the end of the semester is often a time when many high point value projects become due in all your courses, but we really hope that you will put serious thought and reflection into this essay. We (and hopefully you) can use this essay in future years to look back at your time in Scholars to reflect on how that experienced affected your future experiences at the University of Maryland.]
Throughout the course of High School, I had always heard that college classes were going to be a lot harder than high school. Whenever watching a movie or show, you would also see depictions of students studying for a big chunk of their free time for their college exams. From this semester that I have been in college, I came to an understanding that college classes are similar to high school classes and that the difference is the less in class time you have and more freedom to choose how you spend your time when you aren’t in class. I also notice that grades in college are more structured with there being a clear syllabus on how much a certain assignment or exam will have an impact on your grades. Something I would hear when in high school is “this won’t slide in college.” After going through this semester, I see that it would depend on the person but professors and TAs are people as well who would understand if you just let them know what is going on. When I heard that I got into Science and Global Change, I was expecting the program to be purely about topics such as global change and how science relates to it. I found it unexpected that we went through other things in class such as logical fallacies and making a webpage. Due to me not expecting much other than the obvious, the class went over what I thought it would’ve and more. The outside of classroom activities like the trips and excursions were things I wouldn’t think of doing had I had the option to not do anything at all, but they were interesting and were eye opening. An example would be the trip to the Kenilworth Aquatic gardens where we helped to pull out weeds. From this experience, I was able to see how that small community could use any help that they could get and the importance of preserving the environment from invasive species. I also had an excursion attending a talk about nuclear fusion. It was a topic I had already had some experience in but I found what was brought up during this talk very interesting and figured that I want to get a minor in nuclear engineering. At first, I heard from my friend that his brother was in scholars and they just went on a bunch of field trips so I thought it was just some leisure things but I realized through my time in scholars that I can explore my interests and open new doors for myself. I live in Centreville and my experiences here have been great. I have made many friends that I would say made a difference in my college experience. In high school, I pictured there being a lot of studying and partying, but I would say I have found other things that aren’t seen from an outsider’s perspective. Things like the broke activities you do with friends or playing sports at Eppley. I figured that college life is what you make of it, whether you decide to hole yourself in Mckeldin or spend all your time in your room. Asking two people about college could result in a very different story due to choices that are made throughout the semester. Some advice I would give to future SGC students to ease them into college life is to find a good group of friends that will help them grow. It is important to have a group of people to uplift you and keep you accountable. Also ones that you can just hang out with and have fun. I personally wasn’t in a very academics focused group of friends when I first came to the University of Maryland and got side tracked by all the noise that came with the fun everyone was having. I was able to get back on track after some distance was formed with me and that group. Although I began to work towards my goals, I was a little too late and would have to postpone my plans to continue the next semester. With the end of the semester coming, I would say I am in a place that I am unsatisfied with. Whether it be the decisions I have made so far this semester or factors that are out of my control, I haven’t been able to conduct myself to what I believe to be my fullest potential and I would really like to improve myself in the semesters to come. Something that has been helpful to me is getting an outsider's perspective on what I should be doing instead of blindly going along. With this, I was able to get advising on what I should do and how I can change myself to make a come up from where I am.